A Northerner writes about life in the South (or whatever else I feel like)

Sunday, August 3, 2008

You make me sick, Winston-Salem Journal

I have nothing but contemptfor this award.

I bought the Winston-Salem Journal today, mostly hoping to find coupons and ideas to help with filling up my nifty new home. And inside, they had a special section called "Reader's Choice 2008" where they detailed some of the best things you could find in Winston-Salem for various categories. I'll provide some of the conclusions below as provided by the W-S Journal (followed by my commentary in parentheses).

"Best Place to Take a Date: Bambino Brothers Pizzeria and Sports Bar"(Hmm. A sports bar. Okay... I'll just have to take their word that Bambino's is a good place for a romantic evening, I guess.)

(For the record, Bambino's also won the Reader's Choice awards for Best Place to Take the Kids, Best Pizza, and Best Italian. As a friend noted, if the Bambino's experience goes really well, then 9 months later you can take your new little bundle of joy to the same place.)

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"Best Place for a Late-Night Snack: Taco Bell...Winston-Salem agrees that it's the best place for a late-night snack of burritos, chalupas, tacos, nachos or the new spicy Queso CrunchWrap."(Uh... Taco Bell. OK. Come on... surely there are better late night snack options. I hope.)

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"Best Coffee House: Starbucks...Even if you are not a coffee drinker, you'll find something you like at Starbucks."(Starbucks? Starbucks! STARBUCKS?!??! Krankies didn't even make it in the top three?! God, I want to punch the Winston-Salem Journal in the face so badly right now.)

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"Best Hamburgers: McDonald's...Using only 100 percent pure beef, the hand-seasoning on the grill with a mixture of salt and pepper, rest assured you're getting the best burger, regardless of the McDonald's location you're visiting."(Oh my god, I'm driving over to the Winston-Salem Journal office right now... I swear: There will be blood...)

14 comments:

So, basically, "the best" of Winston-Salem can be had in every other city in America and most other major cities around the world. Hell, excepting Taco Bell (which left Seoul, I don't know, about ten years ago), I've got most of Winston-Salem's best right here in Korea.

Sadly, I know I am much older than you, but what did you study at AU? Maybe we can bond over profs. If not, maybe we can bond over what it means to work out in a sports center named for an arms dealer. Ahhh... AU.

PS: I have searched fruitlessly for the Reader's Choice thing. Was it maybe an insert put together by the Business Bureau or such? It sounds so fake-advertise-y.

my guess: no one voted, so they had to make do with what they had. there's really no other excuse.

at least you can take comfort in the thought that it only takes a couple people to name McDonald's "Best Hamburger." in all likelihood, everyone else reading that section had the same reaction you did.

for what it's worth, my vote for best hamburger is at Putter's, which IS local (and something of an institution to boot). it comes with cheese, chili, and cole slaw, and it's AMAZING. (although, come to think of it, I think I've mentioned it before in the comments of your blog; I sound a bit obsessed, huh?)

Exactly what Tammy said. Please don't shoot the messenger on this one. Obviously we wish the voting had been more reflective of local restaurants and businesses, but that was not how it went. Hopefully, the disdain and dissatisfaction with this year's results will move people to be more involved in the voting next year.

Really? Really - THIS is what makes you sick? Are you sure its not the toothbrush and all that spit in your picture? Its sure making me a little nauseous. As far as the Journal goes - I really think its unfair of you to challenge the integrity of the newspaper based on a small section that is intended to give free advertising to small, local businesses. (They can also pay to run an ad if they choose.) The fact that a lot of people didn't vote for small, local businesses is not the Journal's fault. However, there were a lot of local businesses in other categories, which you have not mentioned. So, don't give the Journal a hard time for TRYING to give some exposure to small independently-owned businesses.

Um, yeah, some of the vitriol is misguided. However, the results of the poll do provide a sad commentary on who reads/cares what is published in the journal these days. This is not withstanding some perfectly fine good hard-working folk who work at our local syndicated advertising daily rag.